Books by Richard A. Gabriel

That Muhammad succeeded as a prophet is undeniable; a prominent military historian now suggests that he might not have done so had he not also been a great soldier. Best known as the founder of a major religion, Muhammad was also Islam's first great general. While there have been numerous accounts of Muhammad the Prophet, this is the first militar

Although war has been analyzed from many perspectives, no scholar has satisfactorily explained why the human race fights and how we came to create a degree of military sophistication capable of destroying the entire species.

This book tells the story of Subotai the Valiant, a warrior for Genghis Khan and one of the greatest generals in military history. Subotai commanded armies whose size, scale, and scope of operations surpassed those led by any other commander in the ancient world. Under Subotai’s direction, Mongol armies moved faster, over greater distances, and with a greater scope of maneuver than any army had ever done before.When Subotai died at age seventy-three, he had conquered thirty-two nations and won sixty-five pitched battles, according to Muslim historians. Had the great Khan not died, Subotai likely would have destroyed Europe itself.

?Incisive analysis of the caste system within the Soviet Army; concludes that the quality of officers is low and that problems of troop morale and discipline are severe.?-Orbis

"Richard A. Gabriel ... brings a fresh perspective to [the analysis of the relative merits of the US and Soviet Armed forces]. In his new book, The Antagonists, he focuses upon small-group cohesion as the primary determinant of combat performance. Contrasting recent statistical surveys of the US Army with attitudinal polls of former soldiers among Soviet emigres, Gabriel assesses each army's ability to sustain combat. Coincidentally, he also launches a critique of the managerial philosophy now followed by the US Army officer corps. ... The Antagonists takes a significant step forward in the comparison of US and Soviet armed forces. By extending the analysis of small-group cohesion to the Soviets, Gabriel brings us closer to a real world assessment of their capabilities."-Military Review

To Serve With Honor should be required reading for all members of the officer corps of the United States military. This treatise on military ethics goes a long way in bridging the gap between the military and society's understanding of the military's ethical dilemma.

?A flawed but nonetheless important study that examines the structure of Soviet military life (principally from a sociological perspective). The flaw of this work is, paradoxically, what provides its uniqueness and importance. Gabriel, who is a trained Soviet-area specialist (and intelligence analyst), has used a survey technique to provide his data. The survey was conducted on Soviet emigres who served in the armed forces while Soviet citizens. The data is therefore unique. However, the sample is small (134 for all services), covers service at various points in an extended time period from pre-WWII to 1978, and is skewed (i.e., persons who chose to leave the Soviet Union, mostly Jews)--all acknowledged by the author. Nevertheless, the survey questions are good and the responses, while by no means definitive or conclusive, do provide insight into Soviet military life.?-Choice

The resulting sets of data are divided into twelve categories dealing with various aspects of military service in the Soviet Union: general views of military service, military life, combat ability, training, quality of officers and NCOs, leadership, morale and discipline, ideology, unit cohesion, desertion and AWOL, alcohol use, and suicide.

Over the last five centuries, the development of modern weapons and warfare has created an entirely new set of challenges for practitioners in the field of military medicine. Between Flesh and Steel traces the historical development of military medicine from the Middle Ages to modern times.

No one has ever analyzed the Bible as a military history Gabriel provides the first attempt at a continuous historical narrative of the military history of ancient Israel.

?This is the first comprehensive treatment in English of the approach of the Soviet military to the problem of psychiatric casualities. As information on the topic is hard to secure, the book is based almost entirely on interviews with Soviet emigre experts. It contains an interesting historical overview and comparison of theoretical and practical differences between Soviet and American psychology and psychiatry; it also includes chapters on military psychiatry in WW II, preventing battle stress and battlefield psychiatry. The presentation is straightforward, clear, and contains minimal bias.?-Choice

Colored by the popular and official mythologies of heroism, the accepted view of mental collapse during combat is that it is a fairly rare occurrence that can be attributed to psychological weakness or simple cowardice.

This book tells the story of Subotai the Valiant, one of the greatest generals in military history, surely the equal of Hannibal and Scipio in tactical brilliance and ranking right along with both Alexander and Caesar as a strategist.

The next thousand years saw the emergence of iron weapons, the chariot, the standing professional army, military academies, general staffs, military training, permanent arms industries, written texts on tactics, military procurement, logistics systems, conscription, and military pay.

Gabriel examines 18 ancient army systems, examining the organizational structure and weapons employed and the degree to which cultural values and imperatives shaped the form and application of military force. The tactical doctrines and specific operational capabilities of each army are analyzed to explain how certain technical limitations and societal/cultural imperatives affected the operational capabilities of ancient armies. Cross-cultural and cross-historical connections ground the analysis in the larger historical context of the ancient world.*Sumer and Akkad*The Armies of the Pharaohs*The Hittites *The Mitanni*Armies of the Bible*The Iron Army of Assyria*Chinese Armies*Persia and the Art of Logistics*The Greeks*Carthaginian Armies*Armies of India*Rome*The Iberians, Celts, Germans, and Goths*The Army of Byzantium*The Vikings*The Arab Armies*The Japanese Way of War*The Mongols*The OttomansThis book also provides an introductory overview of war in the ancient world, from 2500 B.C.E. to 1453 C.E., as well as an examination of the evolution of modern warfare from 1453 to 2002 C.E.

The book concludes with description and analysis of the armies of the ancient world placed in a modern perspective. From Sumer to Rome provides a detailed portrait of the world's earliest military establishments.

Gabriel offers a startling new look at Judaism and Christianity by attempting to trace their historical theological roots, not to the revelations of God, but to the common theological ancestor, the religions of ancient Egypt.

This volume examines the 31 wars, campaigns or battles from Megiddo (1479 BC) to the fall of Constantinople (AD 1453) that had the greatest impact on the ancient world, stretching from the Mediterranean through the Middle East to Japan and Korea.